Review: Kavi Coffee Winchester - serviceable but expensive

The shop has already seen a large amount of success, with coffee drinkers queuing out the door over the weekend thanks to a celebratory deal where all hot drinks cost £1. But how well would the establishment hold up when it isn’t relying on special offers?

Arriving at Kavi at midday on a Thursday, one of the first challenges was deciding what to try – I’m not a big coffee drinker, so I eventually decided on a dark hot chocolate with coconut milk.

I also wanted to try the food that Kavi has on offer – would its breakfasts and cakes be up to the standards of its drinks? I settled on the vegan breakfast, which advertised itself as coming with the intriguing addition of coconut bacon, and a piece of key lime pie.

Finding a seat near the door, I eagerly awaited my meal which swiftly arrived.

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I was greeted with a veritable mountain of food – the vegan breakfast consisting of the aforementioned coconut bacon, slow-roasted tomatoes, toasted focaccia, new potato hash, and seasonal vegetable guacamole.

The vegan breakfast (Image: Chris Atkinson)

It made for an impressive sight, and I eagerly dug in. The coconut bacon was interesting – I wouldn’t have said it tasted anything like bacon, reminding me more of roasted vegetable crisps which had been cooked in the oven a bit. It wasn’t bad, but it was never going to replace the original thing.

The focaccia was nice, if a bit dry. I tried pairing it with the dressing which came with my food, but it didn’t do much to improve things. And despite the stereotype of millennials spending all their savings on avocado toast I’m not a huge fan of guacamole, so that was never going to get a fair shake.

The roasted tomatoes were absolutely divine though, perfectly cooked and seasoned – if I had been served a plate of just those tomatoes I would have been happy – and the hash was particularly good.

I stopped throughout my meal to sample my hot chocolate. It wasn’t particularly earth-shattering, but it was perfectly serviceable. Coffee drinkers are probably better served by Kavi than those who can’t stomach caffeine such as myself, but I do appreciate the range of hot chocolates they have on offer.

The hot chocolate (Image: Chris Atkinson)

The final part of my meal was also the best – the key lime pie. I’ve never had this particular dessert before, with a half-remembered joke from Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods informing my decision to try it over having a brownie or a cinnamon bun.

The pie itself had a rather interesting in its appearance. The filling was a luminous green – looking like something which had been found up the nose of a rather sickly child – and was topped with a dollop of cream that looked so artificial that it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that ChatGPT had played a hand in its creation.

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Taste-wise, it was glorious. The lime filling was sweet without being sickening, the cream not too over powering and the crust and base had a lovely crunch to it which I found incredibly satisfying. It capped off the meal perfectly.

The key lime pie was a stand-out part of the meal (Image: Chris Atkinson)

Before I conclude this review, a brief aside: did you know that the most expensive sandwich in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, costs $214?

The sandwich itself is the “Quintessential Grilled Cheese”, available from Serendipity 3 in New York, and contains edible gold leaf alongside the more traditional ingredients of butter, bread and cheese.

You’re probably wondering what the point of this tangent is, aside from showcasing my Googling skills. Well, the thing is, my entire meal at Kavi was incredibly expensive, coming to almost £25 in total. While the meal wasn’t bad, and I wasn't expecting it to come with the aforementioned gold leaf, it does make me wonder how many people will be able to stomach paying that much – even for a one-off meal.

Ultimately, I found Kavi to be a serviceable, if expensive, addition to Winchester’s coffee scene. While your milage may vary, I am interested to see if – and how – it changes in the years to come.